Focus on Robbery™ Symposium reaches new heights
09 October 2007

The sixth IBP-Group Focus on Robbery™ Symposium, held in September, has been hailed as one of the best national security conferences by delegates from a vast array of police, industry and academic disciplines.

Nine top UK guest speakers attended including Steve Nelson, Thomas Cook Group, who discussed company preparation and responses to robbery situations; Detective Inspector Andy Smith, Met Police Flying Squad, explained the ‘cradle to grave’ processes of a police investigation; Kevin Tasker, Centre for Crisis Psychology, who described the trauma suffered by robbery victims and how they can be helped and David Ryan, Specialist Security Consultant, described the importance of gathering, evaluating and disseminating criminal intelligence within the retail environment.

Opening the two-day event, symposium chair Richard Childs QPM, former Lincolnshire Police Chief Constable and managing director ACPO CPI, welcomed the delegates from the UK and Europe comprising representatives from financial institutions, cash handling, retail, police, academia and security. He particularly welcomed Deputy Chief Constable Graham Sunderland, Cumbria Constabulary, on his first visit to the conference and thanked him for agreeing to comment as a UK chief officer on the various topics to be discussed.

The symposium dealt with three main areas of research: ‘Before, During and After a Retail Robbery’, ‘Evaluating and Disseminating Intelligence’ and ‘Cash in Transit Offenders’, during which delegates were treated to a series of first class presentations from experts in their field.

Digby Ram, MD of IBP-Group.

Digby Ram, Managing Director of IBP-Group said: “It is absolutely vital that the security industry plays its part in developing policies and strategies to tackle the big criminal issues. Working in true partnership with other interested parties in creating pioneering new measures to reduce violent crime is a goal we should all be striving to achieve – this year’s symposium has been informative, dynamic and intellectually stimulating.”

Other speakers included Ian Kirke, Training for Success, who explained the vital importance of training staff properly to ensure that employees were able stay safe and cope following a violent incident; Michael Hodge, Greater Manchester Police, discussed pre-event preparation and crime reduction strategies that could be used to reduce the risk of robbery; Michael Murphy, Met Police Specialist Crime Directorate, updated delegates on modern-day forensics and the important role they played in identifying offenders and Dr Karen Shalev, Institute of Criminal Studies Portsmouth University, who revealed her most recent research into cash in transit offenders and what makes them tick.

To give the conference an air of reality, two robbery reconstructions were undertaken in a mock convenience store premises; one at the start of the retail robbery session when the robber got away with a large sum of cash and the second, following the presentations, when all the advice given was incorporated and the robbery failed. The session focussed on pre- and post-raid preparation, training and looking after staff, preservation of forensic evidence, police action and the legal process.

The outputs from the symposium will form part of the ongoing research being conducted by the Focus on Robbery™ Partnership led by IBP-Group in conjunction with the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies at Portsmouth University, the BSIA, financial institutions, industry and the police. The aim of the partnership is to harness expertise from every discipline that has an interest in understanding the reasons for criminal behaviour, analysing the effectiveness of current reduction measures and reducing violent crime.

Richard Childs QPM.

In concluding the symposium, Richard Childs commented: “This is my fourth year as chair of the Focus on Robbery™ Symposium and without doubt this has been the very best. The quality of the topics discussed and the speakers have been outstanding, bringing a wealth of information that has been shared with delegates whose participation in the debate lifted the symposium to new heights.”

For more information visit the Focus on Robbery™ Symposium area of this site, email or call +44 (0)1428 641399.